Love is....

Every so often, there is a small one frame cartoon that appears in the newspaper that has cherub-like naked characters, entitled "Love is..." and each day, there will be something like "Love is...choosing each other." What are the different types of love?

And of course in Catholic Sunday School, there is always the discussion of the different types of love agape, unconditional, I-would-die-for-you-no-questions-asked love or phileo- brotherly/sisterly/comradeship love...and then there was romantic love- get-married-have-kids-grow-old-together love. Funny how when you get older, these lines become blurred. I still believe that you can love people in different ways, but its not as clear cut as in Sunday school. Love is a complicated, all-consuming entity- it is not just a feeling or a flight of fancy. It is a bird that comes to make a nest in your heart.

The one thing that I did learn though, in Sunday school, and its not something that just is Christian, its universal, is that "Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends." 1Corinthians 4-8. The love of our friends gets us up out of bed each day, even when every inch of us screams to not get up and start the day. Love is something that we cannot live without...

I think the favorite cartoon of mine I saw was "Love is...leaping into the unknown." And it is. You don't know what you will give, get, or lose in the process of falling in love and loving the other person. If I have learned anything, while you may sometimes get hurt, showing and exhibiting love to others is perhaps one of the most rewarding things in life- yet can also be one of the most vulnerable, exposing, soul-baring moments. I guess one of my fears in life is to one day turn around and realize that overnight, someone who loved me, no longer loves me- only because giving your love to another person is investing so much emotion and your own life into that person, whether they are a friend, sibling, family member, or significant other.

Now here is my attempt at a "Love is..." feel free to add your own in the comments section :)

"Love is...realizing that your life has been made better for knowing another person."

Song of the Random Day I decide that I'm Going to have a Song for the Day

Mae definently is one of my favorite bands, and this song, is just amazing....as are the lyrics :)

Home
by Mae

I've been sneaking out your back door
since I can't remember when
and thinking about the world I didn't know
and how I wanted in
but now I find I'm in the thick of it
and feeling so alone
I'd take the chance
just one more chance to get me anywhere
It's like I'm running down every road but home

I know I'm running and I'm moving too fast
so here we go, oh
and where I'm heading to it's nobody's guess
so here we go, oh
so here we go, oh

I saw the map like any other would
looking to find and follow lines
that led me to question
but I can see it in the symmetry
it's what was really always meant to be
this singularity is clear from a distance
so I'm dying here to fall in love with home

I know I'm running and I'm moving too fast
so here we go, oh
and where I'm heading to it's nobody's guess
so here we go, oh
so here we go, oh

Staring into mirrors
lost in my design
believe in dreams and wait for signs
you will always find me when I run away
so I will not slow down until I make it back into your arms this time, oh

I know I'm running and I'm moving too fast
so here we go, oh
and where I'm heading to it's nobody's guess
so here we go, oh

I know I'm running and I'm moving too fast
so here we go, oh
and where you're headed to you don't have to guess
so here we go, oh

I'm headed home, oh
I'm headed home, oh

This Post Has Been Rated for Adult Content

I've never been one to be Afraid of the future, but I have, certainly, had my doubts and anxieties about what it holds. Of all things to cross my mind, besides the overall question of where I will be come May of 2008 and whether or not I will be going for a PhD or scrounging to find a job, was just when did childhood, teenage-dom, and the early twenties give way to real life? When did we or will we grow up? There are times, given the things I have had to deal with in my life, that I feel much older (not in the ugh i'm old sense)/wiser than my 23 years of age...and then there are other times that I just feel as if I have been left behind, and those I went to high school or college with me, are leaving me behind- getting jobs, married, and even kids! The thought of even being a mother in 7 years has me a little apprehensive. I do wonder how my parents were able to do it. My dad confided to my sister and I once that it made no difference, whether it was me, my brother, or my sister, and then my other brother, he felt completely lost and inadequate for the task of raising a kid (and this was when he was 28, 30, 33, and 37, respectively). I never asked my mom about this. She seems to just take things in stride. But....bah...enough about kids. That's a long way in the future.

I know that for me to ultimately do what I want to do, I need to get a PhD, but, on the other hand, I have this overwhelming feeling that I am going no where while I sit in a classroom and do assignement only meant to keep me busy until the final term paper due at the end of the semester. At least, some of my very close friends are still in grad school, so that makes it a little bit easier to deal with the fact that I'm slogging in grad school, but at the same time, come this May, more of my close friends graduate and go into the real world. There are times I just think enough is enough, no PhD, get a job. And then hate said job. And wonder, why I didnt get a PhD. It's a vicious cycle!

So overall, this random rambling and general pondering comes to this: we all develop and grow at different rates. Now some of you may be thinking "No Duh Bernie...really????" But sometimes you have to state the obvious. Certainly, it puts some things in perspective when your friends from high school are married and having kids, but it is also a perspective that makes you realize where you are at in your own life- marriage and children really don't fit into the life plan right now. Eventually, they will, just not now.

But how fast time goes by just floors me...it just seems to get faster each year. Yesterday, I was driving a van up to Virginia Tech, moving out of the state of Texas for the first time in 18 years. Before that, I was sitting on the back porch of the Chicken drinkin' Shiner and playing 42, and before that, I was a wide-eyed freshman at A&M, meeting the girls of Davis-Gary...and before that high school shenanigans and IB (the death of any social life for a high schooler), and before that, playing with My Little Ponies and GI Joes with my brother (with the GI Joes riding the Ponies into battle).

And funny, as I finish this post, on my Itunes, "Long Time Gone" by the Dixie Chicks is playing...how apt....

"I caught wind and hit the road runnin
And lord, Ive been a long time gone

Been a long time gone
Lord, I aint had a prayer since I dont know when
Long time gone
And it aint comin back again"

World's Laziest Blogger

That should be my award.

Lesson Learned:

Just because you make an effort to understand another person, culture, or way of life, does not mean same people will make an effort to understand yours.

The Psychology of Happiness

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/97

Perhaps, this is why our generation is so confused and conflicted! We have too many choices and wondering, once the decision is made, if we made the right one or not. Interestingly too, we may not make the best decision if we deliberate on and o. I'm currently reading "Blink" and its proving to be a very interesting read. Essentially, the more information or more choices that we have...the more likely we are to make a decision that is not in our best interest...or will make us unhappy.